Los Alamos Lab Contract Expands Engineering Institute with UCSD

The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded management of Los Alamos National Laboratory to the University of California and three industry partners. The contract takes effect June 2006 and provides for long-term expansion of the Engineering Institute, a research-focused education program at Los Alamos and UCSD.

"This program in the emerging field of structural health monitoring technologies is one of the first of its kind," says Jacobs School dean Frieder Seible. "It represents a model for how universities can partner with government and industry labs to deliver education focused on workforce needs, while at the same time collaborating on mission-critical innovation."

The Engineering Institute includes a multidisciplinary M.S. and Ph.D. program offered by the Jacobs School and co-located at Los Alamos, with students engaged in UCSD- Los Alamos collaborative research projects. Eleven UCSD graduate fellows and 15 Los Alamos employees currently participate in the program, which annually receives nearly $2 million from Los Alamos .

Among the research projects underway are diagnostics to monitor composite-to-steel connections on Navy destroyers; damage detection for composite wings of the Predator UAV; and robots that can hop over obstacles for unmanned surveillance in hazardous scenarios.

The Jacobs School is exploring similar partnerships with other laboratories. Contact Lindy Nagata at (858) 822-2457.